Another Storm
by vballfreak
Summary: fourteen years after the war, everyone is living peaceful happy lives. But the return of old villains soon changes that.The Gaang and their children will once again have to -you gussed it- save the wold.K  for now might go up later.


Fourteen years have passed since Aang defeated Firelord Ozai and restored peace to a war torn world. We spent those years rebuilding and restoring trust between the four nations. We split up about a week after my coronation, and went our separate ways. Suki and Sokka are somewhere on Kyoshi Island, leading simple but happy lives. About a year after we said our goodbyes, Toph went missing and no one has heard from her since. Aang now lives in the South Pole with his wife Katarah but often takes journeys involved with keeping the peace. Then that leaves me and Mai. We were married about 1 month after the war ended and we are now living at the Fire palace (duh). Before we split up for good the Gang made arrangements to meet once a year at uncle Iroh's teashop. We were living happy and peaceful lives and I expected life to be this way forever. I was wrong. This was just the calm before another storm.

Sokka ran full speed into his log cabin on the outskirts of the Kyoshi village. "Suki, Suki, Su-Ack!" he screamed as he fell flat on his face, successfully scattering the firewood he was carrying all over the floor. Suki glanced up from where she was playing with their 7-year old son.

"Yes, Sokka?" she asked trying to hide the laugh from seeing her husband crawling around on the wood floor like a baby, picking up the firewood he had dropped.

"I just remembered that- ooh! Fried hog monkey" he said dropping the firewood again and running over to the steaming plate of meat.

Suki bit back a second laugh. Sokka had the attention span of a 2-year old; something that hadn't changed since she met him. He wiped the crumbs off of his short goatee and started stuffing his third piece of meat in his mouth. "Sokka weren't you going to tell me something?" she asked absent mindedly.

"Oh yeah, right" he said swallowing the last of his food "I just received a message from Katarah"

"That's great. How are she and Aang doing?" Suki asked eager to write back to her sister in law"

"Well they're good, but actually was reminding us of the yearly meeting at general Iroh's tea shop" Sokka said eyes glowing with excitement.

Suki sighed." You're seriously going to go to that again?"

Sokka looked slightly hurt "um yeah, actually I was planning to go"

"Last time we went it was just you, me, and General Iroh. No one else showed up" Suki replied mildly annoyed."Besides you'd be going alone this year."

Sokka knew she was right; it probably was going to be a waste of time. Plus the fact that she wasn't going wasn't going to make the trip much fun. Not that he blamed her. He wouldn't want to go anywhere either if he was 9 months pregnant. But for some reason he felt a sudden urge to see his friends again. Some of them he hadn't seen in over 3 years; others more than that…..it still hurt to think about Toph. They had been very close, not romantically or anything more like best friends."I know you don't want me to, but I miss everybody and I just really need to see them." He told his wife

Silence

"Will you be ok here alone?"

Suki turned to face her husband again "will I be ok alone?" she asked sarcastically. "Let's not forget that I'm the one who trained you "she said smiling "you go, have fun"

"You're the best ever!" Sokka yelled and started jumping up and down like he had to go to the bathroom.

"Yeah, I know "Suki said hugging her husband. "Now get to work picking up that firewood" she ordered in a bossy tone.

Former Firelord Ozai towered over his son triumphantly."Your pathetic "Ozai spat "All your life you've been nothing but a failure, and now you're going to pay for what you and your friends did to me." Zuko didn't care. He didn't care what was going to happen to him. All he cared about was that he had failed to protect the people he loved the most. A few paces away sat Mai and his Uncle, both bound by thick ropes. Two of Ozai's guards loomed above them each holding a sword. Zuko struggled helplessly against the thick metal cuffs that held him. Both of the guards raised their swords. The swords seemed to move in slow motion. Zuko tried to close his eyes but found he couldn't. Mai's scream that followed echoed in his ears as the whole world slowly turned black.

Zuko hit the floor with a loud thud. He blinked, looking around in bewilderment. He had never been so happy to see his ceiling before. He sat up trying to control his heavy breathing."It was just a dream" he whispered to himself. Another dream in a series of bad ones. A small groan from the other side of the bed made him jump.

"Um, Zuko, Why are you on the floor in the middle of the night?"Mai asked sitting up groggily.

"I fell" was all he said as he sat down on the opposite side of the bed

"You had another nightmare." Mai stated looking concerned "You've been talking to yourself _all _night"

"I told you I don't have nightmares" Zuko replied grumpily

"Everyone has nightmares, Zuko" she said her voice becoming monotone.

Zuko sighed he didn't even feel like bothering to pretend he didn't know what she was talking about. "How much did you hear?" he asked softly

"All of it" Mai said moving to sit next to him. Zuko didn't say anything."Zuko" she said gently "You're not going to lose me or your Uncle. Ozai is in prison and Azula is so crazy she can't remember her own name. Besides she would have a hard time capturing all of us."

Zuko looked up at her and tried his best to smile.

Mai wrapped her arms around him and kissed him softly. "You better get some sleep" she said" you have another dumb meeting tomorrow"

"Oh, yeah I wouldn't want to miss that" he said sarcastically, and rolled his eyes.

Zuko sighed as he placed the solid gold fire crown in his hair. Another day of arguing with his generals awaited. He glanced outside. The sun still hadn't risen. The main reason he got up before the sun, was because that's always when his pesky servants would come. He knew they were only doing their job, but them constantly asking him if he needed anything or making sure he was ok after he told them he was fine about fifteen times could become annoying.

"My Lord?" said a timid servant from his doorway "The advisors and officers are starting to assemble"

"Tell them I will be there shortly" Zuko said and the servant scurried off. He took one last glance at his mirror. Thirteen years ago he hated mirrors. He hated the fact that people would always look at their reflections every chance they got. He hated them because every time he would look at them he would see the scar his father had given him. He didn't mind his scar as much now. In a way it had become a part of him. Though he still would prefer not to have it he didn't feel like people judged him by it anymore. That was another thing. He had found himself thinking of his father more and more. He hadn't seen Ozai in over 10 years and frankly he didn't care that he was rotting in his prison cell. His Uncle had tried to convince him to give Ozai a second chance, but he had firmly said no. He would never forgive Ozai. Ever. When he opened his eyes the servant was back.

"Everyone is ready sir" he said kneeling. Zuko reluctantly walked down the red and gold adorned halls of the Palace, to what used to be known as the war room. The same one where he had spoken out against his father so many years before. Now it was simply called the conference room."General Shu, you may speak" Zuko said after everyone had bowed respectfully and he had taken his place at the head of the room. As the general started a boring speech about the greatness of the Fire Nation, Zuko had a feeling that it would be a very long meeting.

2 hours later…

"Even if it has been in the Fire Nation for more than 100 years, it is still a part of the earth kingdom!"

"My Lord, we need this island for its valuable resources. Over one-third of our coal comes from it" said his advisor Lee.

"For the last time I don't care about the resources. It belongs to the earth kingdom and we are giving it back!" Zuko yelled his temper rising.

"Firelord Zuko, this island was conquered from the earth kingdom, over 100 years ago, before the war started, by one of you great-great grandfather's top commanders. We believe that aside from our coal mining, it is completely uninhabited, so why would the earth king want it?" questioned a middle aged captain.

Zuko pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. "The key word there is 'conquered' meaning he took it by force, and the earth king is going to use it as a settlement for more refugees. But I think the real question here is why do **YOU** want it?"Zuko couldn't help but feel a little suspicious when Lee and general Shu exchanged nervous glances. "As we said earlier we want it for the benefits it will bring to the Fire Nation and nothing more" said general Shu.

"Ok so if it's the benefits of the fire nation that you are concerned about then you should have no problem with sharing this island" Zuko replied

"Sir we've been arguing about this for hours. I suggest we take a break" said Advisor Lee.

"Fine" agreed Zuko "We will continue this discussion tomorrow"

What was wrong? Zuko wasn't sure but there was definitely something suspicious about this island. Maybe next week he would fly there and check it out. That is if he had time. After almost 13 years of it he had somewhat gotten used to being Firelord, but still it seemed like his whole life revolved around meetings, paper work, training, and when he could sleeping. It wasn't nearly as bad as his first year had been; he remembered that he literally had 3 feet high stacks of endless paperwork.

"Hey dad" a voice said interrupting him from his thoughts.

"Hi, Zurton" he said turning to face his thirteen year old son

"Is your meeting finally over?" he asked hopefully.

"No" Zuko said absently "we're discussing it again tomorrow"

"Oh" he said disappointedly. It wasn't that Zurton didn't enjoy being the Fire Prince. It was just that sometimes he wished that his family could just take a break and hide somewhere for a couple weeks. Just to get away from the madness for a little while. Of course he wouldn't deny that it was totally awesome to have the Firelord as you dad, but still… "Ok well you get to tell mom that we're not going to Ember Island tomorrow."

Zuko groaned and almost hit his head on the wall before thinking better of it. "Your mom is going to kill me" he said.

Zurton grinned "Yeah, that's why you get to tell her" he said as he walked off towards his room Zuko smiled thinking of his family. Yes, he finally had one. He had never found Ursa, but now that he had his own family he didn't miss her as much. He hadn't forgotten about her, it just didn't hurt as much to think of his old family because he was happy with his new one. Not to mention those crazy maniacs he called his friends. Zurton came running back "Hey I almost forgot. A messenger hawk came for you." He said holding out a scroll that looked to be from the southern water tribe. Zuko began to read it. He looked happy at first, then sad.

"What does it say?" Zurton asked eagerly

"It's from one of my friends asking me to meet all of them at Uncle Iroh's teashop next week." He said nonchalantly.

"Soooo….?" Zurton asked "Are you gonna go?"

Zuko wasn't sure. There was just too much stuff going on right now. The whole thing with the earth kingdom island, Azula having already escaped twice this month and he was still having these horribly dreams, but he wanted to see his friends and Uncle again. Aside from Aang he hadn't seen any of them last year or the year before; and some of them more than that. The truth was; he missed them.

"Good morning Katarah." Aang said smiling. His wife Katarah returned the smile. "Good morning Aang. Not that I'm not glad to see you, but I thought you were going to be in the earth kingdom all next week." Katarah said puzzled.

"Oh, yeah, I was but I cancelled it because I wanted to go with you to see the Gang. Also to spend more time with you" He said smiling lovingly at his wife. Katarah blushed as she started brushing her waist length brown hair. "Great, you go wake up the kids while I get breakfast ready"

Kya and Kanna walked sleepily into the large dining room both complaining about being woken up so early, followed by Aang who was holding baby Tenzin, and following him came 6 year old Gyatso who was still in his pajamas.

"Um, Mom?" asked Kya "Why are we up so early? It isn't even light out." She said gesturing outside. Their large ice house faced towards the east and was near the ocean.

"Yeah" her twin sister Kanna said" "It's kinda pointless to eat when we can't even see our food" she said trying to use this as an excuse to go back to bed.

Katarah looked at her 12 year old daughters. They had her eyes and face, but their hair was a darker shade of brown, more like Aang's hair color. (That is if he had any hair) They were also both waterbenders like her. Then there was Gyatso. He had his mom's hair, but his dad's face and gray eyes. As of right now he and Aang were the only airbenders in the world. It was still too early to tell if baby Tenzin would be a bender or not." Because honey" she replied. "Your father came home early and we are all going to watch the sunrise together"

"Besides, I can fix the light problem" Aang said grinning and expertly shot 6 tiny fire blasts all lighting a lantern at the same time.

"Showoff" Kanna muttered under her breath while her little brother clapped his hands with excitement and begged his dad to do it again. After several more fire blasts and watching the sunrise Katarah turned to her family.

"Hey guys guess what? Where're going to Ba Sing Se two days from now" she said smiling.

"Why are you going?" Kanna asked

"Well because a lot of our friends are going to be there and we haven't seen them in a long time" Katarah said

"Oh, yeah, the ones from the story that dad always tells us" Kanna said

"Hey it's not a story it actually happened" Aang defended

"Yeah, yeah, we know. You and your friends brought peace to the four nations; bla, bla, bla" Kya said dramatically while her twin burst out laughing.

"And daddy saved the world!" Gyatso finished happily.

"Yep" Aang said softly drifting back into memories of the old days. H couldn't wait to see his friends again.

"Wait a minute. Are we coming?" Kya asked

"Yes dear you are" Katarah replied

""But mom! It's bad enough to be the daughter of the avatar and people always wanting you to do tricks and stuff, but now you're going to humiliate me by forcing me to fly into a city of thousands on the back of a fluffy 10 ton bison!" Kya yelled angrily

Kya! That's enough! Your father and I are going and that means you are too" Katarah said, eyes flashing.

Kanna sighed. This week was going to be worse than she expected.


End file.
